Figure 1: A Map of Utopia from the original book printing (1516). The top inscription in Latin reads, “A Depiction of the Utopian Cities.”

The year 2016 marked the 500th anniversary of the publishing of Thomas More’s book Utopia. Much has been written about the idea of Utopia and Utopian societies, stretching all the way back to ancient times. Since Thomas More gifted us a detailed physical description of his “good place,” I thought it would be fun to walk-through his land, 500 years later, give some simple measurements and compare it to some real places today.Continue Reading What makes a Utopia? – a review of Thomas More’s classic on its 500th anniversary

You may consider yourself an urban planner, but are you an urban scientist?

Many of us planners in our daily jobs are busy helping the public in creating, understanding, and implementing plans and ordinances, or otherwise, helping clients with development proposals. Fewer of us are actually “in the lab,” conducting experiments and testing hypotheses. Continue Reading Are You an Urban Scientist?